NATURALISTIC FLORAL DECORATION IN EUROPEAN POTTERY IN THE 18TH CENTURY

About 200 exhibits from the collections of the Faenza International Museum of Ceramics, foreign museums and private collections will portray the development of naturalistic flower decoration; know as Deutsche Blumen, or European flower decoration, it is the most apparent deviation away from Eastern influence.

Botanical studies, a love for realistic painting and new colours that could be used with the muffle tecnique gradually replaced the so-called Korean or Indian flowers used in decoration on Chinese K'ang-Hsi porcelain which, initially, were imitated or even copied from pieces of European porcelain.

The purely European liking both for bunches of flowers inspired by 16th century botanical prints, in Strasbourg, and for the tiny wild flowers scattered over the surface of Marseilles china, soon triumphed and spread throughout Europe as decoration on majolica and china.